VM Memory Allocation & Usage

[JoeSpradlin]

I have read a great deal of information as far as how memory is defined in VMware, but I am not sure what assumptions I can/should make when dealing with memory allocations, etc...

Below is a shot of my SQL server consumed vs active.  Can I assume that I don't really need to have 32+GB RAM allocated to it based on the active guest memory?

[RyanH84]

Hi,

Have you taken any measures within your SQL server to limit the amount of memory it uses? Generally my experience has been that with things like SQL and Exchange, the guest O/S will allocate as much memory that it has as possible into those services (even if it is not fully used).

What do the performance charts say on the VM itself? Can you go back and look at historical memory use to see what is going on? This and inside the SQL Server would be the places I'd be looking to determine how much memory to allocate it. With VM resource allocation, unless I have a specific criteria or baseline of required resources, I tend to try and allocate as little as possible as requirements are usually well over-egged by application vendors.

Cheers,

Ryan

[JoeSpradlin]

I have not taken those measures yet...I will do all that and then regroup my thoughts.  I can see how that will lead me down the right path.

Thanks for the input Ryan.

Joe Spradlin